Every Day is a School Day – Marmot 24hr Mountain Marathon

As if to prove the first bit of this post, I initially wrote this last week but it's taken me till now to post it! How lazy am I? Anyhoo...

If I’m honest, I’ve struggled with this blog. When I wrote the one for MdS, I always felt like I had something worth saying and couldn’t wait to write a post, having to hold myself back a bit so as not to overload and dilute it. Some of the posts were very humorous and entertaining, almost Clarkson-esque in their content and that’s not just me saying that. In the end I managed to cram 36,000 effortless words into that blog, which, if I could’ve really been arsed, I could have turned it into a book to sit alongside the many others in the Marathon des Sables section of your local Waterstone’s.

This time I feel like I am forcing myself to put something down and the times I do get round to writing something I wonder if anyone is actually reading it! Ah, the self-doubting mind of the writer!
Now I’ve got that whinge out of the way, the content of the post can start in earnest. This weekend I met up with an old MdS Tent 95 buddy, Robert ‘Arnie’ Arnold to compete in the inaugural Marmot 24 hour mountain marathon held in the Bloody Big Hills With a Few Lakes Thrown in For Good Measure District. With only 7 weeks to go to the start of G2G, this was a good opportunity to gauge progress, coping with 24 hours on the go in a very challenging environment.

Supporting the local economy

I arrived at the campsite for the night and managed to get my tent up during a gap in the rain. I then set off to the event centre to get my bearings and have a quick catch up with Arnie. By the time I’d got there I’d had a text from Arnie to say that the M6 was doing what it does best and slowing him down to a crawl. So, happy that it was only a 5 minute hop from campsite to start point, I made my way back to the tent via The Troutbeck Arms and a nice, if not slightly expensive, pint of Peroni!

I awoke on Saturday morning to the unwelcome sound of the patter of rain on fabric. Fortunately it didn’t sound like the heavy rain that had been forecast. I leisurely packed my kit away and dressed for the day and then hastily pulled down my tent and threw it in the boot.

Not the best of weather

I drove off to the start with a hint of regret that I hadn’t ordered a sausage the night before for breakfast but, as the lasy at reception seemed a bit grumpy that I’d disturbed her on arrival, I hadn’t the courage to go back down and disturb her again. After all I was here to test myself and kit, one of those things being Mountain House Macaroni Cheese for breakfast. One or 2 of the G2G Facebook crowd have given this the thumbs down but I found it very tasty and, more importantly, it doesn’t give any unwanted after effects.

I arrived at the event centre shortly after 09:00 and hooked up with Arnie. I was grateful to see him as he had informed me earlier in the week that he had been suffering with bronchitis all week and was on antibiotics. It would have been easy for him to pull out of the event due to illness and, had it been a solo effort he may have done. This was a team event, however, and he put that thought first and made the journey up from Cannock. After a brief catch up, we headed off for registration. The kit check turned out to be simply a declaration on a form that you had everything on the kit list. Looking at some of the packs other competitors were wearing, I doubted that they were being truthful but our consciences were clear. We picked up our pre-ordered T-shirts and took possession of a route map and control point dibber and then headed off to the main tent for a brew.

In the run up to the event, I had pondered as to what the route would be like and how far it was. The pre-race info stated that there would be opportunities to return to the event centre for pit stops and
for 4-man teams to change personnel. As there was also a 6 and 12 hour version of the vent, this had me thinking that the course was a cloverleaf. As it turned out, the course was a large orienteering affair known as rogaining where you just chose your own route!

This saw many of the teams, who obviously knew what they were doing, plotting their routes and scribbling away. One team who proudly wore tops stating they were Team France Rogaining were using coloured pins on their map and coiling cotton around these to trace their route and measure distance. All of this was very impressive but for us it was a case of deciding whether to go North or South first and which checkpoint to visit first. We decided that we would make a decision on the ground as to which checkpoint (CP) we would visit next. With that in mind we folded up our maps and settled down to eat, rest and chat a bit more.

Following a quick brief in the rain, we all set off about 10 minutes after the scheduled start time and it quickly became apparent what routes teams had chosen as everyone headed off in various directions. We instantly came across our first map dilemma of the day as the road heading to the first CP we had chosen wasn’t there! We made a decision on the spot to ignore this and go for the next CP, which a few other teams were heading for. This was up a narrow re-entrant and, although we were confident that we were heading in the right direction, we pulled out of trying to hit this CP for no other reason that it just seemed dangerous. We did a quick map appreciation and then headed off for the next CP hoping that all weren’t going to be as tricky to hit as that one appeared to be. We finally made the CP and got our first points in the bag! It had taken us 2:21 to get there and we instantly realised we weren’t going to hit our target points. Points, however, were not the main objective for our participation so we set off for the next one happy that we knew what we were doing! There is always a bit of doubt creeps in with navigation when you don’t instantly find what you are looking for but we had confirmed that we knew exactly where we were when we’d abandoned the first CP.

Of course I know where we are!

By the time we’d made our 3rd CP we’d decided on a strategy for the day that we would do 10 CPs to the North, return to the event centre for a hot meal and a rest and then aim for around 10 CPs to the South. This plan all seemed to be going well until we made our first navigation error of the day.

Better weather

As the weather had now cleared up, we could see quite a lot of the area and had picked out a peak in the distance housing the intended CP. We were also able to pick out the route to this which avoided some steep climbing. As we arrived at the point it turned out we had identified the wrong peak and the correct one was about 800mtrs to the right as we had been looking. If we had done things properly, we would have confirmed the peak with a compass bearing but we had trusted our instincts and been found wanting. This error wasn’t the end of the world and it had brought us closer to an additional CP that we hadn’t intended going for. We did a quick time appreciation and decided that it shouldn’t take long to get there as it was all downhill and the effort of getting back up the hill was worth the extra 10 points. This proved more of a challenge than we had anticipated as we could not find the CP. As it was starting to go dark, we cursed and decided not to waste any more time looking for this CP and to get to the one we had originally set out for. Also, as our 10th planned CP was in bit of a precarious location we decided to forego that one and head back to the centre after CP9. Arnie was feeling the effects of his illness by this time coupled with an injury to his calf plus I was starting to yearn for my freeze dried chicken korma so the move made sense all round. Our second and worst navigation error of the day put paid to that plan.

The intention had been to head due South from our last CP, hang a right and follow a track that ran alongside a river to a Youth Hostel that we had passed earlier in the day. Simple? Well, it should have been. In fact it was so simple that we made the schoolboy error of not checking the compass when we hit the track and immediately turned right onto what seemed to be a track. We could hear water flowing and assumed everything to be in order. The track soon disappeared but we were not overly concerned as map to ground features are not always constant. We were not gaining any height which was also in keeping with the route we had planned. After a while it became apparent that we had strayed somehow, especially as we could make out high ground in front of us and appeared to have settled into a re-entrant which was definitely wrong. Although it was a clear night, the moon had set and it was very dark. We made the decision to bivi up until daybreak and retrace our steps to see where we had gone wrong. This gave us an opportunity to try out the Vango storm shelter I had purchased as part of the mandatory it list, something I previously had thought would spend its whole life never coming into the light! It was supposed to be a 2 man shelter but it was a struggled for us to be covered and comfortable under it plus the available air diminished quite quickly so we were gasping for oxygen unless I held open the chimney / air vent, which wasn’t easy. In any case, we managed to get some rest or at least I did as Arnie testified to me snoring!

So that's where we should have been!

Daylight eventually arrived accompanied by rain and thick fog to replace the clear skies and darkness so we still couldn’t see very far. What we could see was the rest of the re-entrant we thought we had just stumbled across. We made a mutual, unspoken decision to rest a bit longer until the next gap in the rain and then we were up in a flash. The mist cleared a bit more and we quickly worked out where we had gone wrong and that we had gone about 4km out of our way before aiming the decision to stop! We eventually arrived at the point we had gone wrong and surveyed how easy it had been to make the error by not navigating properly. By this time it was 07:00 so we made the ultimate decision to make our way back to the centre and call it a day. We potentially could have made one more CP but Arnie had given all he could and probably a bit more.

I hate this shit!

I was feeling very hungry after not having anything other than raisins to eat since my Mac and Cheese 21 hours ago. We had spent a long time on the hills and, although we had not made many CPs, we had certainly covered a lot of ground in challenging weather and terrain, which was one of my main objectives.

We eventually arrived back at the centre at just before 10:00 meaning we had spent the best part of 22hrs on the hill. Apart from the 3.5hrs we spent resting, we had spent the remaining time on the move, which was another objective for me. So as we sat scoffing the vegetarian chilli that the organisers had laid on, we had a bit of a review and decided that we had done OK. We knew that we could and should have done better, especially with the basic navigation

The finish line

errors but on the whole we were pleased with our efforts.

As I write this post the following day, I have had a look at the results and have seen that we didn’t do too badly at all. We ended up in 34th place out of 42 but it wouldn’t have taken many more CPs to have elevated us a lot higher up the table. If we had achieved our initial target of 20 CPs we would have been in 18th position. Ifs and buts don’t win anything though so we’ll settle for our result. I’m encouraged enough by what might have beens to have another crack and have realised that, no matter how much you think you know, you never stop learning. All good news for my potential when I stand next to the Grand Canyon in 48 days’ time waiting to start the G2G.

Every day is a school day.

Climb Every Mountain

In the last couple of weeks I have learned a lot and experienced enough to realise that my aspirations of a few weeks ago were well off the mark. As I said at the time, I wasn't going to broadcast them in case of eventualities that have transpired. As it is, I am now looking forward to joining a group of people who obviously knew many weeks ago what I know now and declared themselves rear markers! Hope they'll have me!

Notwithstanding any of the above, training has actually been going very well and I am starting to put together sone good sessions. Tonight saw me revisiting a section of the Beacons Ultra with a lick up Tor Y Faen. Yesterday I was up and down Pen Y Fan (both sides) and the coastal path continues to present challenges at home. So all in all I am confident that I will not be caught out by G2G but I am resigned to doing a lot of walking!

photos to follow in due course

Training is Tough

There are no two ways about it, training is tough! The physical aspect of it is tough enough; train hard, race easy is an oft used mantra. What I have always found tougher though is the practicalities of training. I have a full time job, a responsible position in the Army Reserve as a second career, childcare responsibilities for my 2 youngest children and also must make time for my patient, understanding and very lovely partner, Claire. She supports me fully and (hardly ever) complains about me being out of the house – again! I am aware of my failings of past relationships and how Marathon des Sables was a contributing factor to one of those so I am conscious as to not neglect Claire or take advantage of her.

Having said all that, since my self-imposed rest during April, training has gone pretty well during May. I’m not going to say everything is going to plan or start making wild predictions about future performance as, every time I have said that in the past, something usually goes wrong. I have managed to almost stick to a structure of training rather than a rigid programme and, for the last 2 weeks, have managed to get out and nail some hard kms on the Anglesey Coastal Path. This is a meandering, ascending, descending trail which constantly puts me to the test so I am grateful to have it on my doorstep. Last week was particularly pleasant with a real summer evening feel about it. So much so that I put on a real sprint so I could get back to the car, drive home, pick up Claire and then get back down to Cemaes beach to watch the sunset. Yesterday, however, reverted to North Wales type and I finished the session rather damp! All good training value though! I'm still optimistic that I can get a full circuit of the trail in before G2G but that will require a few ducks in a line. Hopefully I'll pull it off as 125 miles with almost 14,000ft of ascent will be pretty good grounding for G2G. I have an aspiration to do the loop inside 48 hrs so (again hopefully) that will stimulate some sponsor cash, which hasn't exactly been rolling in!!

Anyhoo, here's a brief interlude of the beauty of the Coastal Path

Other highlights are a trip to Haven Holiday Park in Pwllheli on Monday for 5 days with Claire and the aforementioned ankle biters where I aim to get at least an hour in each day. Then at the end August, because we can’t wait to go to the Caribbean in January, the 2 of us are off to a secluded villa on the outskirts of a Portuguese farming village near Lisbon where Claire can relax and go to art workshops and the like while I bang in some warm weather training before starting the taper to G2G.

All sounds like a plan but then blog posts of the past remind me that my next post could be one of doom and despair!! But for now, make hay while the sun shines! Oh, wait, it's raining again! Haha!

Getting Closer

Yet another day late post!

Yesterday was the 150 sleep milestone until I fly to Vegas. Put in those terms, it doesn't seem very far away at all and I am still in resting knee mode, which still has another 10 days to go. Take out tapering period of a week to 10 days and I'm down to 130. Take out a rest day per week and that is now 110 days of training. Not a lot so best make them count.

In all honesty, I haven't totally rested my sore par, using the cross trainer for the odd km here and there and occasionally walking around the house wearing my weighted vest, which seems to be doing the trick. Low impact would appear to be a decent strategy so I've made a decision to up the game in this area tomorrow. Once I get back into the swing of things, I'm going to concentrate on long and slow with my pack for the most part. Any cardio will be on the cross trainer with the occasional swim thrown in. With bike rides to and from work as a wee cherry, I reckon that should put me in pretty good stead. I have a race pace in mind but since I've seen a few photos and haven't much of an idea yet how altitude will affect my performance, I'm not going to make any boasts though; I made that mistake before MdS and my strategy was destroyed half way through the first stage!

Please to have offered my week's menu to a couple of fellow competitors, which appears to have been warmly welcomed. They can have that as a freebie; any further requests need to be accompanied by a donation to my Just Giving page! Ta very much.

DAN'S JUST GIVING PAGE

Now back to the footy! Come on you Reds!

A Sort of Longing

Just over a week has passed since I decided to take a month off to try and recover properly from my ligament injury. Things are going well in that respect in that the pain has lessened to an extent that I don’t feel it when I get out of bed or when walking around. If I turn suddenly then I still get a bit of a twinge but nothing like the pain I was experiencing a couple of weeks back.

I have finally taken possession of a new chair at work which has made a big difference as I can now sit comfortably and am not aggravating the condition. Perversely another thing that has seemed to help was crawling up a muddy stream bed on a Reserve training weekend. I had decided against partaking in any actual training due to my condition but I'm afraid that peer pressure and male ego led to me having a crack at one of the exercises. Since then there has been a noticeable difference!! Go figure!

Where I am struggling however is with knowing that there are 1100+ nutters currently running around the Sahara Desert on the 29th edition of Marathon des Sables. I have said that I will never do the race again and that statement will probably remain true. This doesn’t stop the event stirring my athletic loins and make me want to get the trainers and daysack on and get out there again, especially as the sun is high in the sky today. I must remain strong and resist!!

On the subject of MdS, I must wish good luck and continued success to Ashley Charlwood who is currently making his way around stage 3. You can read about his exploits on his own blog. Click here On the flip side of the coin big commiserations to Steph Fell who has been withdrawn from the race after stage 2. I ran with Steph in 2012 and he was very unlucky to be withdrawn on that event so to DNF a second time must be crushing for him. To all others still running / plodding / walking – “vous etes magnifique”, as Patrick Bauer would say.

As a footnote, I promised myself in my last post that I would use my enforced downtime to put my G2G menu together. That is now complete with a week’s food weighing a mere 3.6kg but dishing out just shy of 18,000 KCals. Just need to try out a selection of Mountain House freeze drieds for taste as I cannot go a full week on noodles 3 times a day again!

The Bigger Picture

Well, even though I promised myself there would be no more prolonged absences, I am being forced to impose one on myself. Remember the collateral ligament trouble I was having at the back end of September? Well it has flared up again and is not showing any signs of easing off.

Rather than shrugging it off and train through it, I have decided to do the sensible thing and rest. It looks as though I'm going to need about a month so I have written off April and will (hopefully) resume in May. I've ordered a support and will turn to Andy the physio for some rehab exercises. In the downtime I am going to put together a (seated) upper body programme and give that sadly neglected part of me a bit of a shock!

Obviously I've missed the March date for my 100km treadmill run but I still intend to do this at some point when I'm back amongst it. I will likely bin the 24hr treadmill as I have the Marmot race still on the calendar and I may still find time to do the lap of Anglesey, which I've been putting off for about 3 years!

As with all cloudy things there are positives lined in silver. Resuming in May still gives me 4 months of decent training so I've no worries about making the start line in decent shape. I also plan to use the time to work on my kit and nutrition lists. These were a big success in my MdS preparation because I was anally meticulous and by this amount of time before the race they were 90% complete. As it stands, I've done next to bugger all.

My Just Giving page is up and running now so I would be grateful for donations of any size on there. A good friend has verbally pledge a decent chunk of cash so I look forward to that appearing. To avoid any confusion whatsoever, here is the link. Go on, give it a click :)

Dan’s Just Giving Page

It’s a bit of a concern for me that haven’t put many visuals on this blog so here’s one I found of the Pink Cliffs at a place called Bryce Canyon. Not sure if this is actually part of the run to the top but the steepness looks a bit ominous!!

Ominously steep! Gulp!!

I’ll sign off this post with an apology. During and after MdS, I was not very complimentary about my Raidlight packs. It is true that the stitching let me down badly but rather than just moan, I have now done something about it and strengthened critical areas. Despite this appalling flaw, the packs themselves have many redeeming features. They are extremely light and comfortable and have tons of pockets and space for kit. So once I have put my handiwork to the test, the packs will likely find themselves in action once more come September.

200 Sleeps

Before I go any further, I must apologise for the blank lines at the start of my last post. Some of you may have worked out what I was trying to do, which was say Happy New Year in a number of languages but there was obviously something that Blogspot obviously doesn’t like.

Anyhoo…

I came up with this post title yesterday but then neglected to actually write anything. So it is, in fact, now only 199 sleeps until I fly out to Las Vegas (it’s tough, I know) to begin my latest journey of self-discovery. That does make it sound a bit more exotic and meaningful than “I’m off to run around another desert for a week; see you when I get back”.

Time is indeed flying now. It is almost 2 months since my last post, which has passed in a few blinks of an eye. In that time, training has been a bit mixed. When I have been out, it has been good quality training but these sessions have been interspersed by prolonged periods of inactivity due to:

a. Being blinded on a night run, tripping on a pot hole and twisting my ankle (2 weeks out)
b. Cramping up my calves by poor form on the cross trainer (1 week out)
c. Mile dose of the sniffles (3 days out)


After getting out last night on the first of the month, I am determined that there will be no more extended periods of non-training. This is quite important as I’ve committed to going 100km on a treadmill on 26th March to raise a bit more awareness of my venture and a few shekels into the bargain for my chosen charity.


Ah, yes the charity. I did have a good old think about this and have plumped for the British Lung Foundation (Wales). Choosing this charity did give me a few concerns that people might not be receptive as I had it in my head that if you say lung disease, it is automatically linked to smoking and therefore your own fault. I know from personal experience that this is not the case but found it difficult to convince myself that everyone else might not view it negatively.


It is true that some lung diseases are as a result of lifestyle choices but I realised that, with all health conditions, some will be as a result of a lifestyle choice and others will not. What is true is that sufferers struggle every day to manage what most of us do without even thinking. Imagine not being able to go for a walk without having to stop to get your breath back every 100 metres or not being able to climb a flight of stairs without your head spinning and seeing stars. With that thought in mind I set to work this morning creating my Just Giving page. And, without further ado, here it is…

Dan's Just Giving Page


I am grateful for any donation, large or small. They all give me a bit of added motivation to get my trainers on, even on days like today when it’s lashing down outside.